LORETTO, Pa. ? The Monmouth University women's basketball team defeated St. Francis (Pa.) 77-59 Monday night at the DeGol Arena in Loretto. The win improves MU to 14-8 and 7-4 in the Northeast Conference, while the Red Flash drop to 5-19 and 2-11 in league play. Brianne Edwards (Bloomfield, Conn./Suffield) led the Hawks with a career-high 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while LaKia Barber (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) added 13.
"Our defensive intensity was the difference tonight," said head coach Michele Baxter. "This is the second game in a row that we've really come to play on that end of the court and it showed tonight with the outcome."
Monmouth jumped out in front of St. Francis (Pa.) 22-10 just over ten minutes into the game led by six Edwards' points and five points apiece from Charisse Johnson (East Stroudsburg, Penn./Stroudsburg) and Marisa Jimenez (Carteret, N.J./Carteret) as the latter two each deposited a three-point field goal early on.
The Hawks held the Red Flash without a field goal for over eight minutes before a Kenisha Garrett lay-in at the 7:45 mark cut the MU lead to 24-12.
The Hawks took a 33-23 lead into the locker room at halftime led by Edwards' eight points and seven from LaKia Barber. The 23 points St. Francis (Pa.) scored was the fewest the Hawks have allowed in a first half since surrendering 22 at Central Connecticut State on January 20. MU limited the Red Flash to only 8-of-25 field goal shooting, good enough for 32 %.
The Blue and White maintained their double-digit advantage at 45-32 following a Jennifer Bender (Staten Island, N.Y./Staten Island Tech) traditional three-point play at the 14:40 mark of the game. After a scrum, Edwards found Jimenez on a leak-out lay-up to give MU their biggest lead of the game at 51-35 at the 16:44 mark.
The Red Flash cut the lead to 11 at 62-51 with 4:54 left, but Monmouth pushed the lead to over twenty this time at 74-53 with two minutes left led by a Brooke McElroy (Chesterfield, Va./Thomas Dale) right-wing three-pointer.
Jimenez added 12 while Bender scored all nine of her points in the second half.
Monmouth returns to action this Saturday, February 10 when they travel to Long Island for a 2 p.m. tip with the Blackbirds.
Pictured: Junior Brianne Edwards
